THE prosecution’s lead medical expert in the Lucy Letby case has said hospital executives who failed to act on concerns about the serial killer nurse should be investigated for corporate manslaughter.

Retired consultant paediatrician Dewi Evans says he will write to Cheshire Constabulary to ask it to investigate “grossly negligent” bosses for not acting on fears about Letby while she was on a killing spree, the Observer reported.

Letby, 33, was convicted on Friday of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more during her shifts on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

Consultants who raised concerns about Letby as far back as 2015 have said babies could have been saved if hospital management had listened and acted sooner.

Dr Evans was tasked by Cheshire Police to look at a series of collapses on the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016.

He said that bosses could have helped to avert three murders if they acted with greater urgency on concerns.

He told the Observer: “They were grossly negligent.

“I shall write to Cheshire police and ask them, from what I have heard following the end of the trial, that I believe that we should now investigate a number of managerial people in relation to issues of corporate manslaughter.

“I think this is a matter that demands an investigation into corporate manslaughter.”

Dr Evans said the police should also investigate the hospital in “relation to criminal negligence”.

He added: “Failing to act was grossly irresponsible – let’s make it as clear as that.

“We are talking about a serious emergency. It’s grossly irresponsible.”

It comes as the former chair of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust claimed that the board was “misled” by hospital executives.

Sir Duncan Nichol said the board was told there was “no criminal activity pointing to any one individual” despite concerns, BBC News reported.

The board was not made aware of the rise in incidents on the neonatal unit until July 2016 and at a meeting it then agreed for the deaths to be externally investigated, according to the report.

Sir Duncan told the BBC: “I believe that the board was misled in December 2016 when it received a report on the outcome of the external, independent case reviews.

“We were told explicitly that there was no criminal activity pointing to any one individual, when in truth the investigating neonatologist had stated that she had not had the time to complete the necessary in-depth case reviews.”

In response, the trust’s then chief executive Tony Chambers reportedly said that “what was shared with the board was honest and open and represented our best understanding of the outcome of the reviews at the time”.

Dr Susan Gilby, another former chief executive of the trust, told the Sunday Times that a full public inquiry was required.

An independent inquiry into Letby’s crime was announced by the Government on Friday.

But the Conservative chair of the Health Select Committee has warned a judge-led statutory inquiry should examine the crimes of serial killer Lucy Letby.

Steve Brine expressed concerns the non-statutory independent inquiry, announced by the Government, will not have the power to compel witnesses, and could drag on for years and “disappear down a rabbit hole”.

Mr Brine told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House: “What I want to see to be absolutely clear is not a process that drags on for years, an inquiry that can disappear down a rabbit hole… (I want) one that is effective.

“I can’t actually see how it’s anything but helpful to ministers, to that effectiveness, for this inquiry to have everything that it needs to conduct it, including a judge.”

Mr Brine said some witnesses “may not be so willing” to co-operate with the investigation into the specific circumstances at Chester and the assessment of previous inquiry recommendations designed to prevent incidents at hospitals.

“The two things that draw them together is the need for public confidence. I can’t see how anything other than a proper judge-led statutory inquiry would do that,” he said.

Letby is due to be sentenced on Monday, but has indicated she does not want to take any part in the hearing.